Consumer rewards platform featuring variable cash back rewards based on time of day

Abstract

Disclosed are platforms, systems, media, and methods for providing a membership-based consumer rewards program wherein member consumers achieve rewards based on the time of day and day of week by conducting payment card transactions with business participating in the membership-based consumer rewards program during qualifying times and days.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 61 / 934,536, filed Jan. 31, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Consumer rewards programs (also called loyalty programs) are structured marketing efforts that reward, and therefore encourage, loyal buying behavior by consumers. Traditional rewards programs utilize a card, visually similar to a credit card or debit card, which identifies a card holder as a member in the program. By presenting the card, a consumer is typically entitled to either a discount on the current purchase, or an allotment of points that can be used for future purchases.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION[0003]Many types of businesses are subject to variability in patronage over the course a calendar year, a month, a week, or a day. In some cases, special events draw large crowds at specific times and patronage falls back to normal as soon as the event co...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]Advantages of the platforms, systems, media, and methods described herein include offering business owners the option of configuring rewards based on the time of day. In other words, a business owner may, using the subject matter described herein, configure rewards that vary in magnitude for each time period during a day, day during a week, etc. These features alleviate the variability in patronage over time that challenge some businesses by creating consumer incentives that rise and fall inversely with demand. Further advantages include offering consumers the ability to quickly find business currently offering them rewards, maximize their reward by helping them to identify the highest level of reward currently offered in their area, and determine when high level rewards will be offered at their preferred business locations.

Problems solved by technology

Moreover, in the case of restaurants, the typical day is punctuated by bursts of heavy business at meal times interspersed with periods of relatively slow business.

Existing consumer rewards programs fail to address variability in patronage over time, particularly, variability in patronage over the course of a day.

Current technologies do not offer business owners the ability to dynamically configure rewards, particularly cash back rewards, to be higher during slow periods and lower (or eliminated) during peak demand.

Moreover, current technologies do not offer consumers, for example, the ability to locate nearby businesses participating in their consumer rewards program, the ability to view a list of business currently offering a cash back reward that is sorted by cash back percentage, or the ability to view the schedule of cash back rewards that each business will offer over the course of a day.

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